Memphis is filled with artists and cultural innovators—let’s turn these passions into economic opportunity. Mayor Wharton’s Office of Talent and Human Capital and Start Co. invite you to join us for a reception and dynamic conversation about the role of cities in supporting creative entrepreneurship.

The discussion will feature Dr. Ann Markusen (www.ann.markusen.com), Director of the Arts Economy Initiative and the Project on Regional and Industrial Economics at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Her work focuses on artists, arts organizations, cultural industries, and cultural activity as economic and quality-of-life stimulants in regions and cities. Dr. Markusen will engage with some of the leaders of our local entrepreneurial landscape, including Eric Matthews, founder & CEO, Start Co., Carlton Crothers, CEO, Emerge Memphis and Steve Bares, President & Executive Director, Memphis Bioworks Foundation.

About Ann Markusen:

Professor Ann Markusen is Director of the Arts Economy Initiative and the Project on Regional and Industrial Economics at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. The Arts Economy Initiative and PRIE engage in research and policy advising on artists, cultural industries, and arts and cultural organizations, exploring the intersection between culture and urban/regional development policy. Major publications include:

• California’s Arts and Cultural Ecology (2011) which analyzes the size, location, focus, governance, economic impact and arts participation rates of more than 10,000 California arts and cultural nonprofits and the artists who work for them.

• Creative Placemaking (2010) a white paper for the Mayors’ Institute on City Design and the National Endowment for the Arts documenting successful arts and culture-based projects, often artist initiated, in Cleveland, Buffalo, Portland and San Jose that brought together partners from public, private, nonprofit and community sectors to strategically shape the physical and social character of their areas around arts and cultural activities.

• Native Artists: Careers, Resources, Space, Gifts (2009) documents the economic and cultural contributions of Native artists probing how artists’ vision, training, employment and self-employment, access to space and resources, location, and commitment to community affect their ability to make a living from their work, and recommends how artists, arts resource/space managers, tribal leaders, casinos, funders, city leaders and Native arts organizations can work together to raise the visibility and impact of Native work.

• Crossover: How Artists Build Careers Across Commercial, Nonprofit and Community Work (2006) explores how artists in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas combine work in commercial, not-for-profit, and community spheres based on survey results and four dozen profiles of visual and performing artists, musicians, and writers.

Markusen received her bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and both her master’s and doctoral degrees in Economics from Michigan State University. She has held faculty positions at Colorado, California Berkeley, Northwestern, and Rutgers Universities. Markusen occupied the Harvey Perloff Chair at UCLA, 2005-08, the U.K. Fulbright Distinguished Chair, Mackintosh School of Architecture Urban Lab, Glasgow, Scotland, 2010-11 and was an A. D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, 2007-14, Winner of the 2006 William Alonso Prize in Regional Science, she served as North American Regional Science Association President, as a Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow, and as AAAS Science, Engineering and Public Policy Committee Chair. She is a frequent public speaker and advisor to universities, public agencies, policymakers and nonprofit arts organizations across the U.S. and in Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia and Brazil. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project.

Memphis College of Art provides a rigorous curriculum in an intimate, diverse community to empower generations of leading artists, designers and educators to flourish professionally and contribute valuable ideas to society. The region’s only independent art and design college, MCA is fully accredited with expert, nationally renowned faculty and grants BFA, MFA, MA in Art Education and MA in Teaching degrees with graduates excelling in various careers across the country and internationally. For more information, visit mca.edu. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/memphiscollegeofart and on Twitter at @memphisart.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis College of Art announces the opening of Strand by Strand by Jenna David on April 30 at Playhouse on the Square, 66 S. Cooper St. The exhibition will continue on view through June 8. An opening reception will be held on Friday, May 2, 6–7:30 p.m. at Playhouse on the Square.

David received her MFA in Studio Arts from Memphis College of Art in 2013 and she is currently an instructor at Christian Brothers University and MCA, teaching Surface Design, Book Making and Art History. David’s work explores and reinterprets literature and storytelling with special attention to roles of villains and personas of evil. Her work looks at how such stories can and do address contemporary evils, blending fibers, printing and bookmaking to reevaluate the good vs. evil dichotomy.

“This series explores contamination by placing its toxic role into that of an adversary,” says David. “Such an evil/villain role continues to intrigue me in its necessity for bringing about light and truth, in advancing hope and redemption.” The imagery in Strand by Strand references “Of the Darkening of Valinor,” a story in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. “Strand by Strand visually translates the contamination of the Trees, once sources of light, sucked dry and withered by the venom of the antagonist spider Ungoliant,” says David. “With printing, dyeing and embroidery on fabrics and papers, the organisms lose their light and blacken. Hand stitching and free motion embroidery with red threads further magnify the dimming organs in their loss of life, giving an intense emotionalism that references a more contemporary and personal evil for me that is found in disease and dementia. The similarity of root tissue and cellular forms is deliberate, and the layers of fabric and paper mingling and blurring are intended. Notions of memory loss in my family ironically linger the longest.”

Playhouse’s MCA Gallery is open Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Sunday from 1–5 p.m. and on show nights.

Memphis College of Art provides a rigorous curriculum in an intimate, diverse community to empower generations of leading artists, designers and educators to flourish professionally and contribute valuable ideas to society. The region’s only independent art and design college, MCA is fully accredited with expert, nationally renowned faculty and grants BFA, MFA, MA in Art Education and MA in Teaching degrees with graduates excelling in various careers across the country and internationally. For more information, visit mca.edu. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/memphiscollegeofart and on Twitter at @memphisart.

As part of their class study, the students practiced improving their listening skills, visiting five groups of marginalized neighbors including homeless people, incarcerated women, adults with developmental disabilities, residents in long-term care facilities and men who were recently released after long periods of incarceration. They engaged in conversation with members of each group and then chose one person as the focus of their individual class project, creating artwork inspired by the powerful stories.

Blanchard teaches listening skills from experience—she is a storyteller, writer, nurse and ordained minister. She was recently recognized as the Vision Award Winner among the 2014 Women of Achievement for her project “Prison Stories,” in which female inmates were given the chance to tell their life stories as part of a play. As Blanchard explains, “Every person has value and a significant story to share.”

Memphis College of Art provides a rigorous curriculum in an intimate, diverse community to empower generations of leading artists, designers and educators to flourish professionally and contribute valuable ideas to society. The region’s only independent art and design college, MCA is fully accredited with expert, nationally renowned faculty and grants BFA, MFA, MA in Art Education and MA in Teaching degrees with graduates excelling in various careers across the country and internationally. For more information, visit mca.edu. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/memphiscollegeofart and on Twitter at @memphisart.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis College of Art will present the 2014 Biennial Alumni Exhibition from May 21 through July 26 in the Hyde Gallery, Nesin Graduate School, 477 S. Main St. An opening reception will be held on Friday, May 30, 6–9 p.m. and a closing reception on Friday, July 25, 6–9 p.m.

“Memphis College of Art has a stellar reputation, and it was good to personally see the rich abundance of alumni talent which is the backbone of that reputation,” said Lou. “It was invigorating to see the work of highly talented artists who share the same institutional history. It was very difficult to winnow down to the chosen participants because of the high quality of work. I was encouraged to see so much good work coming from MCA because we all participate with other members of our community to help create and redefine visual culture for our region. We are in good hands.“

The opening reception of the exhibition on May 30 will be tied to a weekend of alumni events, designed to encourage MCA alumni to reconnect with their classmates and network with other alumni who work in Memphis, the region and beyond. For more information, contact Shawna Engel, sengel@mca.edu.

Memphis College of Art provides a rigorous curriculum in an intimate, diverse community to empower generations of leading artists, designers and educators to flourish professionally and contribute valuable ideas to society. The region’s only independent art and design college, MCA is fully accredited with expert, nationally renowned faculty and grants BFA, MFA, MA in Art Education and MA in Teaching degrees with graduates excelling in various careers across the country and internationally. For more information, visit mca.edu. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/memphiscollegeofart and on Twitter at @memphisart.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Registration is currently underway for Memphis College of Art’s Summer Art Camp. More than 64 art courses will be offered for kids in kindergarten through high school in subjects including painting, drawing, photography, digital media and sculpture. Four weeklong camp sessions are scheduled for 2014: June 9-13, June 16-20, June 23-27 and July 7-11. Half-day and full-day sessions are available, with extended care available in the mornings and afternoons.

“We are offering so many interesting and creative camp courses this year,” said Cece Palazola, MCA’s director of community education. “There are classes where kids make 3D animals and dinosaurs, book and jewelry making, photography, metal sculpture—kids are sure to find something they’ll like.” High school juniors and seniors interested in majoring in art in college may choose the portfolio development course as part of the camp, or opt for MCA’s residential Summer Academy program, which takes place July 13-26.

Palazola recommends early registration, as popular classes tend to fill up quickly. Registration can be done on the MCA website (mca.edu) where a full catalog of classes can also be found. Registration forms can also be submitted by fax to 901-272-5122 or in person at Gibson Hall, 1936 Poplar Ave. from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. For additional information, call 901-272-5142 or email commed@mca.edu.

Memphis College of Art provides a rigorous curriculum in an intimate, diverse community to empower generations of leading artists, designers and educators to flourish professionally and contribute valuable ideas to society. The region’s only independent art and design college, MCA is fully accredited with expert, nationally renowned faculty and grants BFA, MFA, MA in Art Education and MA in Teaching degrees with graduates excelling in various careers across the country and internationally. For more information, visit mca.edu. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/memphiscollegeofart and on Twitter at @memphisart.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — For the past year, the Design Laboratory at Memphis College of Art has been working with the Strawberry Plains Audubon Center to create multiple designs including a series of brochures, promotional video and a large-scale wall graphic for the Center’s Cotton Office. The completed designs and wall graphic will be on display at SPAC’s opening reception on Saturday, April 26, 1:30 p.m. at 285 Plains Road in Holly Springs, Miss.

The Cotton Office, a historical plantation office dating back to the mid-1800s, was donated by the John I. and Annie V. McAlexander family and moved to Strawberry Plains in 2005. The building was originally the plantation office of Major Josiah Patrick Milledge Stephenson, a cotton planter who purchased land adjoining Strawberry Plains in 1836. In 1894, Stephenson’s grandson, E.L. McAlexander, secured a post office for a general store that he was running in the old office. The store closed in 1932 and was the last remaining plantation office in Marshall County.

Strawberry Plains saw the potential of having the historic building on their site and developed preservation and fund-raising plans to renovate the building for the Center’s educational programs. SPAC contacted the MCA Design Laboratory in 2013 for assistance in creating an interior environment that reflected both the mission of the Center and the history of the building.

The Design Lab students began their project research with a visit to SPAC during the Fall 2013 semester. By semester’s end, they had completed the re-design of SPAC’s main brochure and their concept for the wall graphic, which brings elements of the outdoors inside through depictions of flying birds and trees and pays tribute to the heritage of the building with a series of antique-style picture frames. The Lab continued work in the Spring 2014 semester, designing two additional brochures, a promotional film and completing the installation of the wall graphic. “This project has been such a rewarding experience for all the students,” said Assistant Professor Hyuna Park. “They have learned not only how to design aesthetically pleasing graphics, but also how to work in a real-world environment. It has been a wonderful opportunity for The Lab to be involved in a project with such rich history.”

Photo: MCA Design Laboratory design for SPAC wall graphic

Memphis College of Art provides a rigorous curriculum in an intimate, diverse community to empower generations of leading artists, designers and educators to flourish professionally and contribute valuable ideas to society. The region’s only independent art and design college, MCA is fully accredited with expert, nationally renowned faculty and grants BFA, MFA, MA in Art Education and MA in Teaching degrees with graduates excelling in various careers across the country and internationally. For more information, visit mca.edu. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/memphiscollegeofart and on Twitter at @memphisart.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis College of Art announces the opening of the 2014 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Collidoscope, which will take place April 16 through May 10 in the Hyde Gallery of the Nesin Graduate School, 477 S. Main St. A reception for the exhibition will be held on Friday, April 25 from 6–9 p.m.

Works in the exhibition display a variety of media and concepts fostered through the MFA program. A recurring theme in the show is the idea of presenting traditional materials and techniques in a new form that contributes to the conversation of contemporary art, asking the question, “what is possible?”

Hyde Gallery hours are Wednesday–Saturday, noon–5 p.m. The gallery will be open from 6–9 p.m. on April 25 for the opening reception. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.

Memphis College of Art provides a rigorous curriculum in an intimate, diverse community to empower generations of leading artists, designers and educators to flourish professionally and contribute valuable ideas to society. The region’s only independent art and design college, MCA is fully accredited with expert, nationally renowned faculty and grants BFA, MFA, MA in Art Education and MA in Teaching degrees with graduates excelling in various careers across the country and internationally. For more information, visit mca.edu. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/memphiscollegeofart and on Twitter at @memphisart.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — MCA Associate Professor of Fine Arts Leandra Urrutia was announced as the recipient of the 2014 Emmett O’Ryan Award for Artistic Inspiration in a ceremony held February 26 at the offices of ArtsMemphis. The “Emmett,” which honors Emmett O’Ryan, founding board member of Metropolitan Bank, is awarded annually to a visual artist recognized for their current work and the promise of future artistic significance.

Head of Ceramics at MCA, Urrutia’s work has been exhibited locally, nationally and internationally and she is currently working to establish a residency and exchange with Chinese master sculptors from the Guangxi Arts Institute in Nanning, China.

Other nominees for the 2014 award included MCA Assistant Professor and Head of Photography Haley Morris-Cafiero and MCA alumnus Adam Farmer as well as Emmanuel Amido, Virginia Fisher, Rachel Grant, Nick Pena and Bobby Spillman. The Emmett trophy was designed and created by MCA Assistant Professor of Metal Arts and Sculpture Bill Price.

Memphis College of Art provides a rigorous curriculum in an intimate, diverse community to empower generations of leading artists, designers and educators to flourish professionally and contribute valuable ideas to society. The region’s only independent art and design college, MCA is fully accredited with expert, nationally renowned faculty and grants BFA, MFA, MA in Art Education and MA in Teaching degrees with graduates excelling in various careers across the country and internationally. For more information, visit mca.edu. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/memphiscollegeofart and on Twitter at @memphisart.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis College of Art will present Jill Wissmiller, associate professor and head of digital media, in a special lecture on Thursday, April 17 at 7 p.m. in the Callicott Auditorium, 1930 Poplar Ave., Overton Park. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Wissmiller is a Midwestern farmer’s daughter transplanted to the Midsouth. Her video work has been screened at a variety of venues, both nationally and internationally, including the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival, the Moscow International Film Festival and the Electrofringe New Media Arts Festival in Australia. Most recently, one of Wissmiller’s glittered video portraits, The Gilding of Lily, was on view in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery as part of the 2013 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

Fixed desire is the through line for much of Wissmiller’s research and creative work, which is concentrated on nontraditional cinema spectatorship and production.

Photo: Jill Wissmiller, “The Gilding of Lily,” video still

Memphis College of Art provides a rigorous curriculum in an intimate, diverse community to empower generations of leading artists, designers and educators to flourish professionally and contribute valuable ideas to society. The region’s only independent art and design college, MCA is fully accredited with expert, nationally renowned faculty and grants BFA, MFA, MA in Art Education and MA in Teaching degrees with graduates excelling in various careers across the country and internationally. For more information, visit mca.edu. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/memphiscollegeofart and on Twitter at @memphisart.

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